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Thanks, Pat. Everything that you have said on question 1 makes perfect sense to me. Not only is it intuitively sensible, but it seems to be the position taken by pretty much everyone who says very much about fish compatibility. On question 2 however, there seems to be an awful lot out there...

Recently, I have read some things that I'd like to hear more about. Here they are: 1. Some breeds of dwarf angelfish can be kept together. I was under the impression that dwarf angelfish were dangerously aggressive toward one another in captivity. Nevertheless, I have read that Half-blacks and...

Excellent idea. I'm going to look into that one.

That's very helpful material, Mike and Kurt. Thank you. In principle, I see the reasons for QT, and I agree that it sounds like a good -- probably indispensable -- precaution against a problem like the one that I'm having now. In fact, I will continue to QT new fish when I have re-started my...

OK. Good information. Thanks, guys. I continue to feel like there is really no effective way to guard against -- or treat, or recover from -- an outbreak of ich. Nevertheless, I will do what I can to move forward from here. I'm now strongly inclined to start over again (with a moderately...

X -- I have a hydrometer. Undoubtedly, you are going to tell me that using a hydrometer to measure salinity is like trying to do brain surgery with a bag of hammers. Yes? How much is a refractomoeter going to set me back?

Thanks, Kurt. I really appreciate the help. Based on your description of ich incubation times, I kind of feel like it's pointless to try and wait this out in a QT. I might need as long as 8 weeks in QT(!), but even that could be too short a time, depending on factors that I can't evaluate...

Thanks, Kurt. I'll try to be clearer about the timeline: My main tank was empty for 8 full weeks. I never changed the salinity in there, because there's live rock. The new fish were introduced to the hyposaline QT at the 4 week mark, and remained in the hyposaline QT for 4 weeks. After 4...

As I said, I don't remember the decimal points right now, and I'm not at home, but I think 1.009 is where I had it. I saw a lot of different numbers out there, and I went with the lowest suggestion that occurred more than once, in all of the articles I was reading. Anyway, I have the readings...

Be careful about the blue lobster. I just put one of those in a 15g, with a goldfish that was considerably bigger than the lobster. Note the "was." Overnight, on the first night, the blue lobster cut my goldfish to pieces. It was gruesome. If it wasn't the lobster who did it, someone drove...

Also, the fish store tells me that they use copper and hyposalinity, as a prevantative measure against ich, although who knows what that means, or if it's true.

Yes. Hyposalinity. I don't remember the decimal points, but I did a lot of research about what constitutes useful hyposalinity, and that's where I kept things. I was doing 2-3 gallon changes, every day or so, on a 10g QT, with no substrate (just PVC tubes), and monitoring the readings carefully...

I had an outbreak of ich in my saltwater tank (30g). So, I took my fish out of the tank, and put them in QT for 8 weeks -- a little longer, actually. Now, as I understood it, the 8 weeks should have been enough time for ich to die off in my main tank. So, at the end of 8 weeks, I returned my...

I have a brittle starfish. Not a green one. A banded one. Anyway, I want to be sure that it gets enough food, so I'm expecting that I will need to target-feed the little beastie. My question is: How? I have tried putting all kinds of stuff on the bottom of the tank, right in front of it. That...

Cmor's wisdom is very great. The obvious answer to Missmary's question then, is that all crabs are good crabs, provided that you amputate the claws first. That was your point. Right, Cmor? More seriously, I think the point here is that nature is "red in tooth and claw," even when it's in a...

It's a good point that you make, G. As I said, clearly, I should have seen this coming. Even though there are no fish in the tank right now, I have been providing a few pellets and a little bit of frozen mysis shrimp every day. That seems to have kept the mayhem in check. No new bodies, and I...

Thanks, Kurt. Very helpful.

I have noticed that some of the fish in the store where I buy most of my stuff have been in stock for quite some time. That is to say -- in some cases -- a particular fish has been in a particular tank for 3 or 4 weeks, and sometimes more. If I buy a fish like that, do I still need to keep it...

I have a 30g tank, into which, I have placed 2 emerald crabs and 2 snails. There are no fish right now, because I am starving the ich, which recently ran roughshod over my tank's once-happy population (survivors are in a QT tank). Anyway, because they seemed interesting, and because they were...

Thanks, Kurt (and everyone else). I have been reading a lot about how starfish need a pretty big tank, in order to avoid starving. Even then, a lot of the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that their survival rate is actually pretty low, at least from the articles and forum discussions that...

Thanks!

I have a 30 gallon tank, with about 20 lbs of live rock. The bottom is sand, and I am thinking about adding some plants, but that's another thread altogether, I'm afraid. Right now, I'm thinking about starfish. I have 2 snails (of some unknown and pedestrian-looking variety) and 2 emerald...

Thanks, Hinds04. How often do you feed the crab? At some point, won't they have eaten everything on the rocks? I don't imagine that crabs are particularly high-maintenance pets, but -- without any fish in the tank -- it somehow seems like I'm in danger of leaving them to fend for themselves on...

Not sure how long I will feel the need to begin with this disclaimer, but: I'm new at this. So...I have a 30 gallon tank, with about 20 lbs of live rock. Sadly, Ich has overtaken all of my fish, and they are in a couple of quarantine tanks, where I hope they won't all die. That leaves 2 snails...

Thanks, Cmor. The 4-week period makes sense to me. As I mentioned, my best guess is that it's the CBB that brought the ich into the tank. If I'm right about that, then 2 weeks certainly isn't enough. Plus, being a Giants fan is presumptive evidence of good judgment on your part. So, I'm...